What was the thinking behind staging this picture (2002 prisoner air transport)?

Great Debates
1

In articles on US prisoners in TWOT, at Guantánamo and elsewhere, one of the frequently used pictures is this one, which first appeared IIRRC some time in 2002 when prisoners were first transferred to Cuba.

I presume this was taken by an accompanying journalist. Both the taking/publication of the photograph and the conditions it shows seem to have had official sanction of the US government (at least I have never read anything to the contrary).

Which is something I cannot have been able to understand, considering that the US administration is by all reports keenly aware ot the value of a favourable public opinion (at least, a favourable public opinion in the US).

The scene (hooded persons tied with straps on the bottom of a transport aircraft) is something that most people viewing the photograph will feel uneasy about. I for one would have a queasy feeling looking at it even if I knew positively that the prisoners were the worst possible humans who’d start butchering innocents the moment they got a hand free. Seeing helpless people subjected to a humiliating situation by armed people does that to people.

Now the prisoners were not hooded and tied down for the purpose of this picture, but the scene is staged in another way: by hanging the American flag in the background. (I assume such flags are not usually used as space dividers in US transport aircraft). Hanging the flag in the background seems to have been done by way of making a point.

Now Americans are usually very, very fond of their flag, which makes me wonder about its deliberate juxtaposition with a scene which could at best be described as a distasteful necessity (assuming the prisoners to be really “the worst of the worst”) and which is very probably seen in quite another light by people around the world who, when seeing someone they don’t know anything about in such a situation, think not “culprit” but “victim”.

If the American flag had been photohopped into the image in an anti-American propaganda effort this would have made sense to me. But as part of a pro-American publicity effort by a public-image-conscious government I cannot get my mind around it.

Any pointers on the thinking behind staging this picture?

2

I have no clue about the staging of this picture; however, every C130 cargo plane that I have ever been in has an American flag hanging in this very same spot. Also, the transportation of detainees with a hood on is common practice. Not only does it keep them from knowing exactly where they are going but it also keeps their identy secret. If you photograph a detainee, they are supposed to have a hood on or something similiar to disguise their identity.

I understand where you are coming from though. This is not a very pro-American image even though it was used for that purpose. . .I have no clue as to why this is the commonly used image, but it is my opinion that it should not be.

3

I stand corrected regarding the assumption that it was staged, then (the reason for hanging flags in transport aircraft escapes me (surely a transport aircraft’s nationality doesn’t need to be conspiciously identified to people inside it) but that’s of course just me not getting another culture).